Ballochroy

Stone Row / Alignment

Ballochroy (Cairnmore) (Stone Row / Alignment) on The Modern Antiquarian, the UK & Ireland's most popular megalithic community website. 30 images, 5 fieldnotes, 1 piece of folklore, 1 weblink, plus information on many more ancient sites nearby and across the UK & Ireland.

Images (click to view fullsize)

Fieldnotes

Directions:
As previously reported the track you need to take is not the most obvious! Park at the bridge where the A83 crosses the burn. There are 3 houses next to the bridge. Walk north along the A83 and take the first turning on the right. This is a rough track leading up to the metal shed you can see from the road. As you approach the shed the stones will come into view. The stones are not visible from the road. Hope this helps?

We were heading for the Mull of Kintyre (cue much humming!) and were running late - again. However, this is a site I wanted to see and didn't want to miss the opportunity. When I eventually worked out the correct track to take it is only a short walk from the road. The walk from the nearest parking spot is much farther. You could drive up the track but I don't know if the farmer would be happy with that?

When I arrived the place was deserted (well, it was a Saturday evening). Access to the field is via a metal gate. Sheep were in the field and I was surprised when one came running over and butted me. Luckily it wasn't the one with the horns! I gave it a pat and told him/her that I meant no harm and only wanted to see the stones. He/she seemed happy with this and ran off.

The 3 standing stones are very impressive. Tall, straight and covered in hairy lichen. The cist is equally impressive. It is of good size and has all its sides and its capstone - something you don't often see. The cist is on a low mound of grasses over small boulders.

The views across the sea towards the islands is fantastic - what a sight. A ferry was making its way to Islay I think? The sun shone, the sky was blue, a gentle breeze and the bleet of sheep. Swifts flew overhead. Sounds good? It was! Now for that long walk back to the car and our final destination. All together now - 'Mull of Kintyre.............'

Visited May 08 in blazing sunshine...... the farm track entrance is difficult to spot - I went racing past (well, as much as you can in an old Rover 45 - Right on!) before it dawned on me that the barn with the red roof was 'the one'.

Parked up the road in a beach lay by (of sorts) opposite Taigh Sona and walked back along the A83 to the site. Three superbly-proportioned monoliths and a perfect, diminutive little chamber stand on the side of a hill overlooking the Sound of Gigha.

The farmer arrives, I assume to check me out, and tells me that after 30 years or so he finally checked out the Mid-summmer sunset to Cara Island last year. Great bloke and a reminder not to succumb to belief in stereotypes..... hopefully he left with the same impression.

The swifts dart in and out of the nearby barn, the lambs do what lambs do and the ferry to Ghiga slowly crawls across the horizon. Not much happens at Ballochroy. Isn't that great?

Just north of Ballochroy village look for when the road is right next to the sea and there is a small turnung up to the farm buildings and the stones. The first time I came here I forgot my camera so I just had to come seeing as I was passing anyway. There are two farm buildings nearby but on both visits there isnt anyone round so we parked up and entered the field through the gate. the sheep here were of a different kind, usually you go in the field and they run off alerting the farmer that something is wrong, but these sheep were huge and unafraid they came right up to us so I flashed them (with my camera) and they backed off. These stones are great big bigger and biggest with a cist that is unusually large and all in a row, if your in the area these are a must

Excellent site. Not easy to spot from the road, and the track is a bit 'blink and you miss it', the big metal shed on the shelf above the road is a good marker.

The stones were larger than I'd expected, with lovely lichen. The cist is in reasonable condition, shame the covering cairn is long since gone.

There seems to be a bedrock viewing platform behind the stone setting, possibly something to do with all the alleged archaeoastronomical shenanigans. On the day I visted, the silhouette of Jura was almost lost in the haze, so Gigha seemed significant in the choice of this spot as a place designated for the standing up of stones.

This famous site is said to be able to determine the dates of winter and summer solstices - see the Megalithic Sites link for a full description.

Access to the site is by the track off the A83 at NR730527. There is limited parking here but ample about 0.25 mile further south where the road crosses the Ballochroy Burn. The people in the Balochroy bungalow near this parking point do not own the land on which the stones stand but they thought getting permission was unnecessary.

Folklore

The 'Alternative Approaches to Folklore' bibliography athttp://www.hoap.co.uk/aatf1.doc
mentions that the stones at Ballochroy were thrown by Brownies (one assumes the little people type, not the bobble-hatted sort). Do you know more about the story? Tiny Cara Island, just across the Sound of Gigha, has its 'Brownies' Chair'. Perhaps they threw them from there (though you wouldn't normally think them so strong).